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While
hanging out in Antigua, Guatemala,
Sam and I thought it would
be nice to spend a couple of days in a little less visited place.
El Salvador, right next door to Guatemala is exactly such a place.
We took Jimena with us and decided to go first to the Monte Cristo cloud
forest, close to the
small city of Metapan in the Northwest of El Salvador. It is a tropical
rainforest on the top of a
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Volcán Izalco
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mountain. The guidebook
warned that it is a bit out of the way, and therefore difficult to reach.
what
it did not say is, that even after a ride on the back of a
Lago de Coatepeque
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four wheel
drive up the mountain on what looks like a road, the park officials donot let foreigners go into the forest, unless they come with their 'own' vehicle.
And there is only one person willing to drive you there
privately and he is right down in Metapán , standing with his car at the beginning
of the road and charging about $40 a person for this ride. This about 100 times
more than what locals pay to get there. For some
reason, most likely related to local mafia activity, there is no one else willing
to offer a ride,
we really tried. There are no tourist agencies and surprise, no sign of tourists
whatsoever
in what is supposed to be El Salvadors major tourist attraction. Instead, we found
out after a walk through the town, that we ourselves were
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becoming quite an
attraction as some of the local teenagers would go wherever we
went.
We did find an excellent 'pupuseria', where we got some find local food and a
again a few stares.
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The
next day confirmed that nobody in El Salvador even understands the concept
of tourism. We went to a local travel agency and reserved a room in Hotel Montaña ,
a hotel on top of
a mountain overlooking a vulcano. The phone number was outdated,
but after about 10 calls our helpful travel agent found the number and made
the reservation. We found someone willing to drive the two hours it takes to get
there, but when we arrived we were told the hotel was closed for already 5 years!
The reservation turned out to be for a hotel with the same name on the other side
of the country. There was no other hotel in the area and we had really been looking
forward to staying in this beautifull place. The guards saw
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A small waterfall in MonteChristo
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Jimena
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our dilemma and immediately
offered to clean up a room for us, as long as we would pay the normal rate. We were
the first guests in three months in this big
place. All we needed now was Jack Nicholson
for a sequel to the movie 'The Shining'. For dinner we found someone to make
us a few 'pupusas' and luckily we had brought our own supply of alcohol. The roomkeys
were not available, so every time we wanted to go in, one of the guards had to come
with the masterkey. And every time we used the electrical shower the power would go
off in the while complex. In it's heyday this must have been one of the best
hotels in the county. Certainly still a very interesting place.
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From MonteChristo you can see about half of the country
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